Capt. Bob Beck’s Marina Cafe — Restaurant in Jacksonville

ABSOLUTELY THE WORST RESTAURANT IN JACKSONVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!! SANITATION GRADE 86 I don’t usually leave reviews unless they are good ones but after seeing the review made by a Selina Masale from the same night my family and I were there I have to leave this one star review. The response to Selina’s review was quite obvious it was meant for my party not hers but I thought it interesting that they too had such a similar experience as we did. This will be a lengthy review as we had a very lengthy experience. We arrived at 7 and were seated at 7:40ish, I say seated but the manager told us our tables were ready and pointed us to the back door to go seat ourselves… we placed our order and waited. The server did the bare minimum for us, we waited 30 minutes for refills on our drinks, never checked on us or asked if we needed anything. Ignored us more than anything. At that point we should have left but we had 3 small children who were very hungry and just wanted to get our food so we could eat and get the kids home to bed. When we finally got our food after 9:00(over an hour after placing the order) everything was cold. We were also sitting outside in the dark with ZERO lighting having to use our phones flash lights to see the food. Again we should have just left but we were starving at this point and just ate what they served us. The last straw was the server bringing us our bills which she got wrong then telling me mine was going to be charged more and snatching it away from me. I asked to speak to the manager (what a joke). She was full of excuses and attitude telling me it was my fault for coming there to eat. No sincere apologies just rude remarks. She did give us a whopping 25% off of our tickets only after telling us we were warned that they were short staffed. Being short staffed wasn’t the problem, the treatment was the problem. If you don’t have the staff to serve X amount of people then tell them we can’t accommodate your party tonight and we would have gone elsewhere. But they decided to serve us attitude all night instead. From the moment we walked in the door we didn’t feel welcomed but decided to stay being we had family from PA in town who wanted a outdoor dining experience by the water(as we all know this is the only place in Jacksonville that has that) The only thing this place has going for it is the view of the river, everything else looks like something from an apocalyptic movie. The building is falling apart, the weeds are overgrown, just gross. We’ve come here a hand full of times over the years and each time we come it’s worse. We will not be returning and will never recommend this place to anyone again, which they will state they are happy about instead of apologizing for their lack of knowing how to run a decent restaurant(as the manager so blatantly said in her response to Selina’s review “I’m glad you feel you would not come back, I don’t think we would like to have you again”) any response to my review I sure will be full of attitude and only blaming us for coming rather than taking accountability for the actions of the employees. Terrible management, terrible service, terrible all around. If this isn’t enough to keep you from trying this place out, their sanitation grade is in the 80’s which I didn’t know this until my daughter pointed it out when we were leaving or that would have been enough for me NOT to stay and have to experience what we did....

Obviously another family went the same night as us having the same experience we did and when I reached out about our issues they brought up the review to which we didn’t leave and they basically didn’t believe that. The response though was definitely meant for my party though and they must’ve been confused. As soon as we walked in it was nothing but disrespectful remarks but we stayed because family was in town and we wanted to show them a place we liked and had been going for years. When told it was a 30 min wait my family started discussing and the host asked if we were going to get on the list and I replied they’re still discussing (it had been 20 seconds) she replied yeah I see they’re still discussing in a snarky way. Then she turned around and said I’ll be back and never came back and eventually someone else came up with an attitude also letting us know it’ll be 30 mins and they have to let the kitchen catch up before seating us. We said it was fine and got on the list. Another group came in after us and got told 25 mins. Then the manager came and told us it would actually be 40 mins. We were eventually sat after only 20 mins. We got there at 7. We didn’t leave until 9:45. The time wasn’t even a huge issue it was the attitude. Everytime someone spoke to us it was with negativity, neck rolling, and condescending tones. We sat without refills for 30 minutes never coming to check on us. She did come to drop stuff and then walk away and one time I even tried hollering ma’am cause she’d come twice and still no refill but she just kept walking. I’ve been coming for years and years and within the past year the 3 times we’ve gone we had terrible service, but still good food. When I messaged the Facebook page whoever runs it said since I’ve been coming for years and only three times were bad then it’s fine pretty much and I should give them grace but it’s the fact it’s obviously going down with customer service. Last night when the manager was spoken to about the issues we were having she neck rolled some more telling us we knew they were short staffed and it’s our own faults for still eating there basically, and was extremely condescending and rude and then went inside laughing with her employees about us just being a crappy table basically. This is a place I used to love, even got engaged there, but can’t say I’ll be returning. I think it says something that another table had the same experience. Also YES we ate everything even though it was cold. We did that because we had been there for two hours and had a 1 year old, 2 year old and 5 year old all ready to go home and it was 9 pm so what else were we to do??? Seeing how those page usually responds in snarky ways, not taking any accountability, I’m just hoping for others to see this and be aware. The way the owners respond to multiple comments should tell you...

Went in, was recommended this place by a friend. Like many other reviewers are saying, the front is a little off putting. Sun bleached paint with the gravel parking lot and boats strewn about. Nonetheless we went in.

The hostess we first spoke to put us in line and said it was a bit of a wait. We were fine with it. However we noticed she didn’t write our names down or even ask for it. Makes me a little nervous when I don’t see people writing down what should be written.

We wondered how she would remember our party, but we just stuck by. She remembered in her own head. Single point of failure should she not be at the front as the hostess anymore. Some other parties were in line ahead of us, but she didn’t remember their names so she couldn’t call their party. They weren’t inside waiting either. So she just moved down the list and we were next.

Finally we sit down and the table is clean, and they gave us a table with room for our stroller. It was nice. The interior does look a little better than the outside. Honestly, I was for it. I liked it. Since it was a Friday after the Fourth of July, we could tell it was not fully staffed. They were taking care of us though, and it was going well.

Waitress comes and is super nice, polite, and smiles at us. She takes our order and once again nothing gets written down so it worried us. They got it right when the food came out, though. Glad it did, but like I said before: It worries me to see a host or waiter not writing things down that could easily be forgotten.

Service was alright in the end, we felt the hostess had a bit of a sour attitude when she noticed her parties had left. Understandable a bit. She wasn’t the most welcoming either to be fair.

Crab dip was super super good and the garlic bread that came with it was amazing as well

I had the seafood platter and it was good too. Lots of fried food if you’re into it. After that I was done eating anything fried for a bit. Too good. Wife has a crab dip but in a sandwich pretty much. She said it was good too. Sounds good, I’m a bit jealous.

Overall, the atmosphere is alright. Place seems a bit dated on the outside. The service was okay, I’m glad our orders were right, but a server and host that doesn’t take names or write orders is bound to create an error eventually. I know we are all human and have error, but I just think it’s harder to mess up peoples orders if they just take notes and names at the front. Food was good and filling, well worth it.

I recommend this place, but it’s not anywhere I’d go for a date night.

Alright I’m done beating the dead horse. Thank you for...